Son of Sagittaron
by The Wilky Bar Kid
Summary: HERMES. 15 years before The Fall, Alex Adonia fled to Tauron from Sagittaron with his girlfriend. In order to survive he finds himself involved in the illegal bare-knuckle boxing circuit. A painful lesson follows before he finds his way into the Fleet.
1. The Son of Sagittaron

_FOREWORD - I've decided to start a series of oneshots that feature main characters from Hermes that describe major events in their lives before the main story. This is the first and tells the story of Major Alex 'Griffon' Adonia - The Hermes' CAG._

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"Aside from a Cylon, is there anything that you hate more than a Sagittaron?"  
_- Line from BSG S03E13 "The Woman King"_

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TAURON  
15 YEARS BEFORE THE FALL

The crowds screamed and jeered at the spectacle before them. Their voices reverberated around the disused warehouse that sat on the outskirts of Tauron City which served as the arena for tonight's fight. It had promised to be a good one and the crowds were not disappointed. They seldom were for these fights satisfied their bloodlust. This was the bloody and violent world of illegal Tauron bare-knuckle boxing.

Heracles Tamzin was the local favorite having beaten many men who had been foolish enough to stand before him. He was powerful and hard hitting. His knockout blows had been embedded into local folklore as being able to kill a man in a single punch and he had dished out several of his trademark attacks against the younger opponent he was fighting today but none had landed successfully. The only blows that had landed were unfortunately not particularly decisive. The young man he was fighting certainly had a smaller build than Tamzin but this gave him the edge in terms of mobility. The clumsier Tamzin struggled to get his harder hitting punches on the young man who proved to be very nimble on his feet.

His opponent was a twenty year old Sagittaron named Alex Adonia who had become known within the local illegal fighting scene as 'The son of Sagittaron'. He was a new fighter in these parts but he was out to establish himself and he hoped to achieve this by going straight for the top dog of the pack; Heracles Tamzin.

Alex kept his hands up in a defensive posture either side of his face. This almost totally blocked his peripheral vision allowing him to concentrate fully on Tamzin. _Gods he's big!_ Alex's arms were fully energized from adrenalin and were ready to strike forth at Tamzin like a pair of vicious Cobras. The truth was however that Tamzin held the advantage on strength which meant that Alex was going to have to make sure he avoided a counterattack everytime he made his move against Tamzin for any serious injury at this crucial juncture could cost him the fight.

Tamzin wasn't waiting for Alex to make the next move however. The heavily tattooed Tauron threw his whole weight behind yet another potentially lethal blow towards Alex who instinctively leaned back to allow the powerful attack to pass by his face once more. Having averted being hit Alex took the opportunity that lay before him and launched his own frenzied attack into Tamzin's rib cage. One! Two! Three! The fast landing punches seemed to do little to the Tauron's toned body but Alex went on undeterred. Four! Five! Six!

Alex suddenly felt a heavy force land on his back between his shoulders. Tamzin's immense arms swooped down on the attacking Sagittaron's body almost throwing Alex onto the ground. Rather than staying in close and continue his attack on Tamzin's rib cage Alex quickly withdrew several paces backwards, Tamzin trying impatiently to land the killer blow as he did so but again they came to nothing. The whole fight had taken on this pattern. Alex was smart enough to know not to get trapped in close with Tamzin where his mobility advantage would be lost. He was making Tamzin work hard to get a hit on him and thus waste his energy. This would negate Tamzin's advantage in strength.

Tamzin's fury was now glowing from his body. He was getting more and more frustrated with Alex and was continuing to waste energy trying to end the fight with a knockout blow. This was precisely what Alex had been hoping for. He knew he couldn't fight on the same terms as Tamzin but if he could wear him down then he might have a chance as he expends his energy.

The two of them began to circle the makeshift ring outlined only by the spectators who had gathered around to watch many of whom spat and swore at Alex. Racism towards the Sagittarons had been on the rise ever since the Cylon War when the majority of the Colony's population refused to take up arms against the rampaging machine army. Most people therefore considered the Sagittarons to be little more than stubborn and cowardly so it surprised many that Alex Adonia had lasted as long as he had done with the fight now going into its seventh minute, something almost totally unheard of amongst such fights especially against Heracles Tamzin.

Alex suddenly dived forward to attack. Tamzin responded by sending his left fist towards Alex. Alex used his superior speed to get inside Tamzin's arms and launch another frenzied attack but this didn't totally prevent the punch from landing. Tamzin's fist impacted slightly awkwardly on the smaller man's shoulder causing his wrist to twist. Giving up on working the abdomen Alex suddenly shot his right hand upwards towards Tamzin's exposed chin. It landed perfectly and Tamzin spat a mix of blood and teeth.

Gripped by pain and disoriented from the force of the impact Tamzin stumbled backwards as he reached to protect his mouth which was now gushing with blood. Alex wasted no time. He reached inside himself for the last ounces of strength and began an attack so fierce that he resembled more of a crazed animal than a human. The punches landed quick and hard as tears of anger and frustration ran down his face. He didn't know if his punches were aimed at any particular part of the Tauron's body. All he could think about was landing as many of them as he could. The tired and injured body of Heracles Tamzin finally gave out under the onslaught and he fell backwards onto the floor with Alex still attacking any part of him that was still in the air.

The crowd suddenly found itself standing in awe as they watched their local champion fall to the hands of a scumbag Sagittaron. The fight organizer, a dark skinned middle aged man named Portha, stood beside Alex and raised his blood-soaked right hand in the air before declaring him the winner.

"That wasn't a fair frakking fight!" cried a particularly disgruntled spectator who was angered by Alex's refusal to fight on Tamzin's terms.

"He wouldn't get stuck in properly!" yelled another. "He's just another frakking coward from Sagittaron."

"Hey, hey, hey!" interjected Portha. "Just get over it ok otherwise you're going to be carried out of here just like Tamzin. The man won fair and square!"

Portha's words were met by more booing and cursing as the crowd began to disperse. Before long only Alex, Portha and Tamzin's unconscious body remained inside the warehouse. Alex's arms were heavier than they had ever felt in his life. They seemed to dangle beside him as though they were now just lumps of flesh scabbed onto his torso. He seemed to have to sway to the side to face Portha since he lacked the strength to do anything else.

"You have some money that belongs to me," slurred Alex.

"Don't worry!" said Portha. "I aint forgotten." Portha reached into his pocket and produced a small pouch that bulged with cash. "Here, three thousand eight hundred and fifty two cubits. As promised." Alex reached up and took the pouch, his body twisting in pain as he did so. Nevertheless he held the pouch as though it were his own lifeline. Indeed, that description wasn't far from the truth since this had been the only money he had made in the three weeks he had been on Tauron. "Y'know next time ya wanna fight you just give me a call, yeah? There's plenty more where that came from."

"Thanks," uttered Alex. "But right now I just want to get the frak out of here."

"I understand. Think about it though. Hey, here's you're ride," said Portha signaling to the door on the far end of the warehouse. Alex looked over and saw a young woman standing in the doorway looking over at him. Her eyes were filling up as she looked at his swollen body, a result of several of the blows that Tamzin had managed to inflict upon him. The young woman was his girlfriend, Giurno Moore. She had pleaded with him not to fight tonight but the seriousness of their situation had forced him to accept Portha's offer. "Here," said Portha handing him a small silver flask. "This will help. Virgon Brandy. Get as much of that down you as you can. Now get the frak out of here before the cops show up."

Portha walked away as Alex began to make his way towards his girlfriend. Giurno Moore was seventeen years old and like Alex she hailed from Sagittaron. She quickly rushed to his side and tucked herself under his right arm to help him walk.

"Gods!" she said to him as she saw the extent of his injuries on his exposed upper torso. "Let's get you in the car."

Outside the old warehouse was a distressed looking orange Scorpia Cortina sedan, a car that had been out of production for nineteen years but it was all the two of them could afford. Giurno opened the back door of the car and Alex seemed to fall onto the backseat. He clambered along the seat until his head was resting on the opposite door and his legs were tucked in thus allowing Giurno to close the door and climb into the front driver's seat. She then started the car and began to drive the two of them back to the motel they had been staying at since they arrived on the Colony.


	2. Alex and Giurno

Alex Adonia and Giurno Moore were among a growing number of dissatisfied young Sagittarons who were growing frustrated and tired of the backward ways that most Sagittarons chose to live their lives. They had taken all the cash they had and used it to buy a ticket to travel off world to start a new life. Their original plan was to go to Caprica but they found they couldn't afford a life there and so they ended up on Tauron. In their minds anywhere was better than home but life on Tauron proved difficult thanks in no small part to their ethnicity. Their funds were quickly disappearing and with no legitimate work being offered to them Alex felt he had no choice but fall back on his boxing prowess and participate in the illegal fights.

It was a twenty minute journey to the motel. In that time Alex had consumed half the flask of brandy. It was helping with the pain but now he was also having to contend with a strong feeling of nausea. Having arrived at the run down motel Alex opened the car door that his head had been resting on and he began to slither out onto the tarmac. Giurno quickly ran around the car and helped him to his feet once more before guiding him into their room. Two other guests at the motel who were entering their own room looked on at the scene and Giurno was sure she heard one of them say, "Drunken Sagittarons! Typical."

Inside the room Giurno helped Alex to the bed and he fell back with his head landing on the feather filled pillow. She lifted his lower half up onto the bed and began to remove his blood and sweat stained clothes. Tears continued to trickle down her face as she undid his shoes before pulling off his socks and his trousers. She then tugged at the thin blanket in order to put it over him. He was rapidly losing body heat from a mixture of the sweat from the fight and the cold Tauron winter night. After wrapping him up tightly in the blanket she then went into the small bathroom adjacent to the main room and began to soak a towel in warm water. She fetched it back in and was soon wiping his swollen face clean. He seldom twitched under the exhaustion in his body despite the damp towel stinging several of his wounds. For the next hour or so his eyes opened several times but never for longer than five minutes. Like the faithful girlfriend that she was Giurno watched over him until he finally fell asleep and so she climbed into bed alongside him.

Alex Adonia awoke from a nightmare at 5am. He looked around the darkened motel room until his eyes finally stopped on the young woman cuddled upto him. In the blue glow of the early morning light the beautiful features of her face were highlighted superbly. He tried not to move his body as he tilted his head to kiss her on the forehead as she slept. He had been in enough fights in his lifetime to know that the real pain from a fight came not in the ring but in the morning that followed when his body started the healing process.

As his lips left her forehead she began to stir and wake from her sleep. Groggily she opened her eyes and looked up to see him staring back at her. He seemed a bit more awake than he had been when she got him home and this pleased her a lot. She would have liked for him to see a doctor but he had insisted prior to the fight that no doctor was to be called unless it was absolutely necessary since doctors would ask a lot of questions and cost most of the winnings.

"Good morning," she said almost in a whisper. "Are you ok?"

"Yea," he replied softly. "Just sore."

"Can I get you something?" she asked him.

"No, just stay here with me."

"Ok," she said as she leaned up to kiss him. Her movement along his chest caused him to writhe in pain and she quickly stopped before gently settling back in beside him. "I'm sorry."

"It's ok. I'll be fine," he said as calmly as he could. "You don't regret it do you? Coming with me I mean."

"What? To Tauron?"

"Yeah," said Alex. "I didn't...I mean, you didn't feel forced to come with me?"

"Of course not," she explained. "I wanted to come with you. I love you." She looked back up at him as she repeated the words, "I love you."

"I love you too," he said. The two of them smiled before she lowered her head once more. "It won't always be like this. I promise. I've been having some thoughts recently and I wanted to run them by you."

"What kind of thoughts?" she asked as she moved her head to make herself more comfortable.

"I've been thinking about joining the fleet again. There's a personnel shortage and they are taking just about anyone."

"Are you serious?"

"It's something I've been thinking about," he again explained emphasizing that he hadn't decided anything for sure yet. "What do you think?"

Giurno thought for a moment before answering, "If it's what you want to do then I will support you."

Alex could sense that she had more to say and so he uttered the word "But?"

"But....If you join the fleet we will hardly ever see each other. I-I don't know if I could handle that."

Alex didn't know what he could say to that. It was true that if he did join the fleet then there could possibly be months between them actually seeing each other and what would she do in the meantime? Stay on Tauron? Go back to Sagittaron?

"Like I said, it was just something I was thinking about."

The two of them didn't speak any further on the matter and it was not long before Alex fell asleep once more. When he awoke the sun was high in the Tauron sky sending down long rays of bright light that penetrated the thin gap in the curtains. Alex looked down to where Giurno had been sleeping and found that she was no longer there.

"Giurno!" he called out thinking she might be in the bathroom but there was no response. He looked around and saw a small note folded up on the table beside his bed. He reached over to pick it up and groaned from a short sharp pain that appeared in his chest as he did so. He opened the note and began to read it.

_Dear Alex,_

_I have gone to the shops to pick up a few things for us. I didn't want to wake you so I left you sleep. I love you with all my heart._

_- Giurno_

Alex placed the note beside him on the bed rather than put it back on the table and feel that sharp pain again. He looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was almost 11:30am. The shops weren't that far away and Alex guessed she would be back within the hour. Therefore he continued to lay there waiting for her and continuing to heal from the fight.

2pm passed by and Alex was beginning to get worried. He had no idea what time she had left the motel but even if she had gone when he woke up then she should be back by now. He continued to wait in the motel room but it was getting unbearable for him. Despite the pain and agony he was in, he started to pace the room and looked out the window every few minutes or so for any sign of the orange Cortina. At about 3:30pm he was forced to sit back down on the bed. His whole body seemed to throb from the pain he was experiencing and his breathing became heavy from fatigue. Where could she be?

There was a sudden knocking on the door. Startled, he seemed to jump to his feet and his body responded by sending yet another shard of pain right through his upper torso causing him to growl in anguish. The knocking was repeated with added impatience and Alex suspected it was the motel owner wanting payment for the next few days they would be staying there. As he opened the door his heart seemed to jump into his mouth as two Tauron City Police Department officers stood before him.

"Are you Alexander Adonia?" asked one of them, his voice firm and quite intimidating as he spoke.

"Yes," he said knowing it was futile to try and wiggle out of the fact that he was about to be arrested for his participation in the previous night's illegal fight.

"Do you know a Miss Giurno Moore?" the officer then asked. Alex nodded figuring that Giurno had been arrested and they wanted to confirm that he was the person they were now looking for. "I am afraid I have some bad news sir," continued the officer. "Miss Moore is dead. She was found this morning in her car just outside the city limits. She was stabbed to death."

Alex became a flood of emotion and confusion to the point where the only way he could cope with it was to effectively shut himself down. He became numb all over not being able to feel the emotional or even the physical pain he was enduring. He just stood there listening to the officer subtly hinting that _he_ was actually the intended target for the killers due to his defeating of Heracles Tamzin the night before. Many people had lost money on that fight and were looking to get it back. Unfortunately Giurno was driving their car and not him and so she became the target for their revenge purely by default.

No charges were brought on Alex for the fight because this would have attracted too much attention to the illegal sport that was lining the pockets of several high ranking police officers who were being paid to keep things quiet. Before the two police officers left his motel room they advised Alex to leave Tauron as soon as he could. As one of them put it, "there is a strong possibility that whoever killed Miss Moore will still come after you. And I don't care how tough you are, these people will not think twice about making a corpse of a Sagittaron."

Giurno's killers were never found.


	3. 14 Years Later

BATTLESTAR HERMES BS-58  
SEVEN MONTHS BEFORE THE FALL

Major Alex 'Griffon' Adonia sat in his Viper Mark VII as it was towed across the Port Hangar Deck after completing a seven hour training flight above Picon. It would be one of the last flights he would undertake from the Battlestar Hermes for another six months as the ship was getting ready to go into refit. With the Viper secured on the deck Adonia clambered out from the cockpit that cocooned him inside the small fighter. All around the deck there was a feeling that things were winding down in preparation for the upcoming refit. The deck gang wasn't working as frantically as they would be on deployment. Most of them were carrying out menial tasks such as cleaning the deck or conducting tool kit inspections.

Once he had climbed out of his Viper 'Griffon' was met by Chief Imlay who handed him the post flight checklist for the Hermes' CAG to sign and report anything the Chief needed to know.

"Check the calibration on the DRADIS array, Chief," said 'Griffon'. "I'm still seeing shadows out there. It's screwing up the targeting."

"I'll get right on it sir," said Imlay as 'Griffon' handed him the signed checklist.

"Well there's no real need for it to be done right away. I probably won't be flying this lady again until after the refit," said 'Griffon'.

"All the same sir I'd rather not hand my air wing over with a repair list," explained Imlay.

"Professional pride Chief?" joked 'Griffon'.

"I guess you could call it that sir," said Imlay. "So will you be attending the show tonight sir?"

"Show?"

"Fight night sir," explained Imlay who found it hard to believe that the CAG had forgotten about such an event since most of the ship was buzzing with talk about who was going to fight who. There was even a small contingent of crewmembers hoping for a showdown between Commander Artimus Bowman and Colonel Caleb Dytto. The Commander and XO were hardly friends and most felt that it was only a matter of time before they came to blows. May as well be in a ring.

"Oh yeah," said 'Griffon' as they began to walk across the deck towards the crew room. "Probably not. Not really my scene anymore. Carry on Chief!"

"Yes sir," said Imlay who watched 'Griffon' walk off the deck.

'Slammer' and 'Jo-Jo' suddenly appeared from inside the crew room where 'Griffon' had just entered. They walked upto Imlay, both adorned in their flight suits, and asked about their own individual Vipers that they were about to take out for the last time on this deployment.

"Yea, everything is good to go," said Imlay as the three of them began to walk across to their waiting Vipers. The conversation quickly turned to the impending fight night and each of them had their own ideas about who they'd like to see step into the ring that was being assembled over on the Starboard Hangar Deck.

"I wonder if the CAG is going to step up?" said 'Slammer' almost off handedly.

"I asked him if he was going," explained Imlay. "He said it's not really his thing. Shame though, I've seen him in the weight room pummeling the punch bag. He's got some good moves. I'd hate to be on the receiving end of one of his good ones if I was honest."

"Ah, he's a Sagittaron aint he?" said 'Jo-Jo'. "You know what they're like."


End file.
